In the field of food packaging it is well recognized that wrapping a comestible product in small increments is desirable, as this technique permits a portion of the product to be consumed without exposing the remainder to the deleterious effects of air, bacteria, light, oxygen, odors, etc. It is especially desirable to provide a plurality of packets of sliced luncheon meat or the like in one package, as this type of food is often consumed in small amounts over a period of days.
A machine to produce such a package efficiently and economically is not known in the prior art. Since high speed slicers are typically used in the food processing industry, it is necessary either to wrap small stacks serially at very high speeds, or to form the consecutive stacks from the slicer into parallel streams of small stacks which can be wrapped simultaneously at a much reduced rate. The latter approach is more feasible, and machines attempting to accomplish this task using various conveyor arrangements have been constructed. Generally speaking, the conveyors used to shift the stacks into parallel arrangement have not exhibited the exacting controllability required to create the properly aligned rows of stacks which are required by the packaging machine.